


Believing That There Will Come the Time for Every Life to Sing

by Crimson Rosé (Poison_Rose)



Series: TsukiKage Prompts ☾♛ [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25643857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poison_Rose/pseuds/Crimson%20Ros%C3%A9
Summary: Tsukishima thought this was ridiculous. He also thought this was way too much work. And the more time passed, the more he regretted not throwing himself off the balcony in front of Karasuno's volleyball club room this afternoon.Prompt 1: Parade(When I say prompt, I mean using a random word generator and use whatever is given to me as a theme)
Relationships: Kageyama Tobio/Tsukishima Kei
Series: TsukiKage Prompts ☾♛ [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859041
Comments: 9
Kudos: 119





	Believing That There Will Come the Time for Every Life to Sing

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from a song “アレルヤ” (Alleluia) by Kalafina.  
> "全てのいのちが歌うときが来るって信じて" (Believing That There Will Come the Time for Every Life to Sing)
> 
> English is not my first language and no beta, so yeah. Hope you enjoy!

Title: Believing That There Will Come the Time for Every Life to Sing

Prompt: 1 – Parade

Tsukishima thought this was ridiculous. He also thought this was way too much work. And the more time passed, the more he regretted not throwing himself off the balcony in front of Karasuno's volleyball club room this afternoon.

The street they walked on was crowded to the point that it resembled canned fish, people too loud and space too small. Not that dead fish could make noise, Tsukishima amended.

"What are we even doing?" The tallest first year muttered under his breath. His bored amber eyes looked this way and that before pausing to scowl at something he found particularly disturbing, namely his older brother, Tsukishima Akiteru, who was moving through the crowd, trying to take a photo of him with his camera while yelling, "That's my younger brother!" so loud that Tsukishima was sure people from a town over could hear.

Tsukishima made sure to openly glare at him, and the said older brother winced when he caught the menacing sight, but stubbornly refused to let the rare opportunity to have pictures of his dearest _otouto_ go.

Hinata perked at the rhetorical statement. "Walking a parade, of course! Aren't you excited, Stingy-shima?!" said a ball of orange who jumped up and down next to him non-stop since they had departed from Karasuno's front gate.

Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "What is there to be excited about?"

He disliked being at the center of attention, which is unfortunately exactly what he was subjected to at the moment.

Karasuno’s men’s volleyball club was walking a parade around their town to thank people in the community for their donations. Ever since Yachi had put up their club posters at convenient stores and supermarkets, they started to gain more and more funding for training camps and transportations to the Sendai Gymnasium. Tsukishima guessed it was fine to at least thank them for their money, but he didn't understand why _he_ needed to walk too.

As the captain and the vice-captain, Sawamura and Sugawara walked at the front, holding a vinyl banner that had their school name printed largely on it, followed by a statement “we are going to the Nationals!” in bright orange. Azumane was behind them, bowing to literally anyone and offering words of gratitude to pedestrians a tad too often. Hinata, Tanaka, and Nishinoya were excited as expected. They were like moths being drawn to flame. Tsukishima watched as the three seemed to glow brighter every time some passerby as much as said their hairs looked different.

He wondered if they knew the word different was just a polite way of saying they were weird.

"Nee, nee, nee! Tsukishima!" Hinata continued to bounce, and the constant movement was causing Tsukishima headache. "We are popular!"

He doubted that statement as much as he doubted Hinata's ability to pass his tests. Sure, they won against a national powerhouse like Shiratorizawa. They revived Karasuno’s age of victory from the mud of scorns and insults. But that did not mean they were popular, or in a better fitting word, famous. Every-day people who did not care about volleyball did not know them, unlike those people from some top schools who were recognized almost everywhere. The TV crews were just here to take a few pictures and record some video to use as a footage in some short snippets that Tsukishima was sure would be on the local news for no longer than 30 seconds. Half the people surrounding them were not here to see them, merely drawn by the accommodation and their own curiosity. But what Hinata didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Tsukishima looked around, having a vantage point over a bunch of heads. He knew where his brother had parked the car, so he was about to be done with the whole thing and just walked out when a child's voice pierced through the sound of rigorous shutters.

"Mama! That onii-chan is making a scary face!"

Tsukishima turned at the voice and saw Kageyama walking stiffly with his I’m-trying-to-smile-so-here-you-go face. Aside from when he tried to encourage his teammates (which ultimately resulted in some forms of fight or mockery) and when he pitifully wanted to go along with whatever antics Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Hinata were getting into (but stuck out like a sore thumb), Tsukishima had never seen Kageyama this awkward.

Still, seeing the setter’s difficulty at impressing kids didn’t deter Tsukishima from rubbing it in some more. He bent down just enough to whisper into Kageyama’s ears without anyone overhearing. “Don’t smile, King. You are scaring the poor kid.”

The response was quick and predicted. Kageyama glared at him with anger that Tsukishima knew was there to hide embarrassment. He smirked. Seeing someone had it worse than him made Tsukishima feel a little less annoyed at this whole situation.

Kageyama walked slower until he fell back in steps with Tsukishima. They were now walking side-by-side. Kageyama’s fingers were busy fidgeting with the hem of his black jersey. His cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. “Too many people. I don’t know what to do,” he admitted reluctantly.

“Just don’t smile and you will be fine.” Tsukishima knew this was not the best advice, but in all honesty, Kageyama almost looked better with his signature scowl than his intentional attempt at smiling.

He knew Kageyama _could_ smile, a small spread of his lips and an absence of creases in his eyebrows. Tsukishima had seen it a couple times and realized that it was fair why people did not see. Kageyama’s smile was not noticeable, barely there, unlike Hinata’s wide grin or Sugawara’s gentle curved lips. It seemed to Tsukishima that the setter only smiled genuinely when he didn’t have to try for others.

Yeah, Kageyama could smile. When he changed in their club room while humming an off-tune song. When he absently drank his favorite milk at lunch. When he successfully solved one of his math homework from infinitely many more awaiting. People just needed to know when to look.

“Go!” A hush, desperate shout that came from their right brought Tsukishima out of his head space. Tsukishima and Kageyama turned their heads and saw a small boy who was still in his elementary school uniform standing beside a woman and a girl, whom he assumed to be his mother and his little sister.

“U-Um…” The boy stuttered. He walked up to them, paper and a pen in both hands, but his eyes refused to stay anywhere near them.

“Uh…” was Kageyama’s intelligent reply.

Tsukishima almost sighed. _Great, now there are two awkward people attempting at communication._

Tsukishima crossed his arms and watched in amusement as the boy looked at Kageyama hesitantly like he was preparing to bolt if the setter as much as move a muscle in his face. Leave it to Kageyama to have an admirer as socially inept as himself.

“Just go!” The small girl who was held in the mother’s arms shouted and the boy jumped, before turning back to mouth something akin to ‘Don’t pressure me!’ He took another glance at Kageyama, who in turn stared at him dumbly, and swallowed, but his legs moved him closer to Tsukishima.

“A-Ano…” He started, and Tsukishima waited. Of course he was starting to get impatient with the way this boy acted like they were going to bite his head off, but Tsukishima knew better than to let it show in front of his mother and his young sibling. “M-My name is Uehara Daisuke. I play volleyball at my school…Uh, I w-watched your game with Shiratorizawa.”

When it finally drawn on him that the boy was talking to him and not him plus Kageyama, Tsukishima couldn’t help but raise his brows. It was not every day that someone completely disregarded the genius setter in favor of a mediocre middle blocker. At his peripheral, he noticed Kageyama’s shoulders loosened up in relief when the kid stopped looking at him.

“I think you are c-cool!” The Uehara boy still refused to take his eyes off his sneakers, his fingers playing with the edge of the slightly crumbled paper in his hands. “Your block w-was awesome, and I want to be tall l-like you.”

By now, everyone on the team had stopped walking and looked back at Tsukishima with barely contained envy. Ennoshita gave him a knowing look and smirked, while Tanaka looked like he was about to rip his head off his shoulders for having a kid looked up to him when the second year himself had none.

A blur of orange inserted itself in between Tsukishima and the boy. “What about me?!” Hinata said loudly with excitement. His sparkling eyes watched the boy expectantly, eager to be recognized.

Tsukishima could tell the young boy was feeling pressured. He kept glancing at him like he thought complimenting others would make him mad. “U-Uh…You are…also cool?”

Tsukishima smirked. _That comes out like a question._

Deciding to help the poor boy from Hinata’s relentless compliment-seeking questions, Tsukishima looked at him and asked, “Well? What was that paper for?” And boy, he did not hesitate to jump onto the opportunity. The boy looked at him with bright eyes and held out the white paper in his hand. That was when Tsukishima noticed there was a high-resolution photo of him jumping to block mid-air too.

“C-Can I have your signature, Tsukishima-san?”

Tsukishima let himself offer a small smile when the boy even remembered his name. He heard Nishinoya howling in the background.

“I am not that famous, but sure. Why not.” Crouching down and taking the paper and pen that were handed to him, Tsukishima wrote his name in his usual handwriting. He thought of the signatures on his CD collection and added ‘to Uehara Daisuke-kun’ in smaller letters after it too. “Here you go.”

The boy took the paper and looked at it like he just found a pot of gold. “Thank you so much!” He shouted, for once not stuttering, and bowed almost ninety degrees, before sticking the photo in his hand out like he was giving an offering. “My dad took this photo at your match. Do you-do you want to keep it?”

Tsukishima blinked. All the unfamiliar attention and admiration he was receiving were starting to get too overwhelming. “You…want to give this to me?”

“If you would like!” Came the shouting reply, following by Yamaguchi’s quiet ‘why the honorifics…’

Thanking the boy, Tsukishima took the photo and looked at it. He was surprised at how well it was shot. It was heavily zoomed, so he assumed it was shot from a pretty heavy-duty camera. In the photo, he was jumping for a block, his hands reaching an inch higher than the rest of the blockers. The volleyball that hadn’t made it pass him deflected from his hands. The artificial light that created a slight glare on his prescription glasses made his amber eyes seemed almost glowing. The effect was surreal. Tsukishima had never seen himself like this.

“That’s a nice picture,” Kageyama’s voice suddenly came from beside him, much closer to him than necessary.

Tsukishima lifted his head to see that the setter was staring intently at the photo in his hand. “I like your eyes when you focus,” he went on, and Tsukishima was not sure what kind of face he made in response to that. This was not the first time someone had complimented his eyes, given how unusual their color was. But hearing it from Kageyama hit differently, and Tsukishima didn’t know, didn’t dare to know, how he felt.

So he turned back to Uehara and pat his hair with a smile. “Thank you. I will put it up on my wall.” That was not a lie. He would frame it and put it up beside his favorite band’s posters.

“I’m glad you like it! I will be watching your games at the Nationals!” Uehara beamed at Tsukishima before stepping back to where his mother and sister stood a few feet away. He waved at him, indicating that he had done all that he had planned to do and Tsukishima was now free to go on his way.

Tsukishima waved back with a small gesture, still too dazed to say anything more, and the parade continued.

“This is not fair! How come Stingy-shima gets a fan and I get none?!” He heard Hinata complaining to the senpais.

“Maybe you will have some too if you are taller,” Tsukishima taunted.

“What did you say?!” Hinata and Nishinoya, who felt indirectly insulted being shorter than Hinata, growled.

Tsukishima gave them both a smirk that he knew would rile them up before leaving them to deal with Sawamura’s glare when they became too loud.

Now that he had some time to himself, Tsukishima thought back to the photo in his hands and felt like it was his hallucination. While it was not uncommon for him to be noticed for his height and attitude, this was the first time someone admired his blocks so wholeheartedly. He was used to hearing people calling him ‘Karasuno’s tallest player’ and ‘the annoying first-year blocker,’ but no one had ever called him ‘the cool blocker’ like that boy did, and it stirred something in his chest.

So this was what his brother felt when Tsukishima looked at him with admiration when he was younger, this sense of accomplishment. No wonder Akiteru had wanted to give volleyball his all, Tsukishima thought while suppressing his smile that threatened to appear on his face. If he wanted to keep his fluttering feelings from Kageyama’s constant curious glances, no one needed to know.

A few minutes later, they arrived at a shopping district which was their final destination. The captain ordered them to line up in two rows, facing the stalls and shops that were at either side of them. Many customers walked out to see what was happening, and a handful of shop owners beamed at them from their respective shops. Tsukishima recognized some familiar faces that he had caught sometimes when he had looked up to the cheering audience at the gymnasium.

“We are Karasuno’s men’s volleyball team. Thank you for your support!” Sawamura said loudly and bowed.

“Thank you for your support!” The rest of the team followed as practiced. The applause that came after was loud and clear. A chorus of congratulations sounded, and Tsukishima had never been this emotional since his struggle to accept Akiteru’s fruitless effort in his high school years.

The process was quick. They bowed again after the applause and walked a little further away from the shopping district before the third years started folding the banner. The parade was finished.

Tsukishima and the rest of the first years said goodbye to their teammates and headed towards the general direction of their houses. (Akiteru had offered to drive him back home early, but there was no way Tsukishima would agree to be in the same car as him after the embarrassment he had just pulled off at the parade.) A train ride and a fifteen-minute walk later, Tsukishima found himself in front of Ukai’s shop. Hinata and Yamaguchi waved their hands and went the other way, while he was left with Kageyama.

They walked in silence, Kageyama never the one to strike up a conversation and Tsukishima too out of his element to tease. Tsukishima was sure he had replayed the interaction with the Uehara boy six times already. Still, the encore went on. It was when he heard Kageyama calling his name that he snapped out of his thought.

“How can this peasant serve you, Your Highness?” Tsukishima hoped Kageyama didn’t notice the lack of venom in his taunt. Seriously, why did Kageyama have to say that unnecessary thing about his eyes?

Kageyama scowled, but the next sentence that came out of his mouth was unexpected. “You know you were cool when you blocked Ushijima-san, right?”

Tsukishima blinked. “My, my. Is the King going to compliment the lowly me as well? How touching.”

He could see Kageyama’s eyebrow ticked and relished in the thought that his words hadn’t failed him yet. The raven hair setter took a deep breath to calm himself, before looking at Tsukishima in the eyes. “You…were really cool, you bastard!” His words flowed out mushed together because of the rush, his cheeks flushed pink. But before Tsukishima could register anything and gather himself enough to form an intelligent reply, Kageyama bid his farewell and ran.

Tsukishima stood there for a whole minute before his lips curved into a smile. And if he hummed his favorite song while walking back home with light steps, no one also had to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Twitter @BlaBlaBla__Me


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